


These Hands Which Hold You

by Steampoweredwitch



Series: Love and Virus [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Coma, Force Visions, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Relationship, Psychological Horror, Space Virus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 18:17:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20605205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steampoweredwitch/pseuds/Steampoweredwitch
Summary: Hux falls victim to a deadly space plague, leaving Ren to pick up the pieces as the General wastes away. Why saving Hux is so important is beyond Kylo, but he'll do just about anything to keep him from dying.





	1. Sloane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wildfang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildfang/gifts).

> All of my love to my artist, wildfang, and to my beta, missionfailure!
> 
> Find the art at wildfang-art.tumblr.com

"You already know the story." Across from him, Rae Sloane sits with proud posture - the product of a lifetime of distinguished military service. Ren wonders if it's those same years of service that produced the shrewd gaze, continuously checking her exits, the way she placed her back to the bulkhead of the Supremacy, or if her home planet of Ganthel has anything to do with it. Her gaze turns inward, as if thinking back a very long time.

"All the same, I want to hear it from you," Kylo says, accepting the glass of Corellian brandy from her.

"It was in the Denon system, on board the Defiance," Sloane begins. She takes a swig of brandy, leaning back in her chair. "The Emperor was invited to the Flight Institute for a meeting on converting military academies inherited from the Republic into Imperial assets. He and Lord Vader boarded, and Baylo," Ren feels his lip twitch. She doesn't refer to him by his rank. "Baylo spent his time trying in vain to make an impression on His Excellency. Emperor Palpatine instructed Lord Vader to remain and observe, and we made preparations to make the jump to Christophsis."

"What was he like?"

Sloane pauses. She swirls her glass. The ice cubes clink together. "Cold. There was an aura about him that made the air harder to breathe. He carried this trail of rage with him wherever he went. The wise respected him. The foolish scoffed at his - 'cheap sorcery' was the popular term at the time. Everyone feared him, whether they believed in the Force or not."

Ren listens with bated breath. Here is someone who knew his grandfather, untainted by the Light as Luke Skywalker was. "And then what happened?"

"I inputted our course to Christophsis, and Baylo went behind my back and made alterations. His plan was to pilot the Defiance into a nearby sun while he escaped. I ran the math again, and Lord Vader came to my station to corroborate my suspicions. He reset the course, and left the bridge. After we made the jump to hyperspace, I found Baylo's body. It looked like he had been airlocked. The coroner confirmed that he was strangled, but they never found the murder weapon. Emperor Palpatine renamed the Flight Institute The Obedience, and then he and Lord Vader departed for Ryloth to quash the uprising there."

Ren sits back and lets a breath escape him. He's always longed to feel closer to his grandfather. He wonders how he compares. He refrains from asking.

"Thank you, Grand Admiral. I'm sure you've worn that story to death over the years. You've been instrumental in maintaining the First Order since the death of Supreme Leader Snoke."

If his praise inflates her ego at all, there's no outward sign of it. She drinks deeply from her glass, and Ren joins her, draining his own.

The door chirps, alerting them to a visitor. Ren frowns. He can feel Hux's heavy energy before Sloane admits him. 

As he enters Kylo notices that Hux’s hair is slicked back with extra gel today, making his ginger strands appear darker, and his features, by contrast, more gaunt… The General just looks worse for wear overall.

Hux stops short at the sight of Ren, still seated across from Sloane. The smile fades from his face, and he folds his hands behind his back reflexively. "Supreme Leader-"

"I was just on my way out," Ren says abruptly. He rises, sending his now-empty glass floating to the sink in the next room with a passing wave of his hand. "Grand Admiral, I'll see you at the summit in three days."

She nods, and leads Hux toward the chair Kylo has just vacated. He overhears her criticizing voice despite the sound of his own heave footfalls, "When was the last time you slept, boy? You look like shit."

Ren privately smiles. Something about the most practical woman in the First Order mothering Hux amuses him deeply. He supposes they have history - or at least, she and his father did. Maybe that's enough. Who knows?

Despite all the warning signs at his disposal, this will be the last time he sees Hux before the virus completely takes hold.

** _3 Days Earlier…_ **

_ Stormtroopers trudge through a murky swamp. A command shuttle hovers above them... _

_ An insect slips through a hatch, wings buzzing ominously... _

_ Hux staggers down a corridor that twists and bends into impossible shapes… _

_ A disembodied voice calls Hux's name… _

_ Hux passes through a doorway and collapses in the dark, overturning a shelf on himself in the process… _

_ “The Supreme Leader is dead.” _

Kylo wakes with a start, heart pounding. The Force presses in on him from all sides. He sits upright and rubs his chest.The dream is unlike any he's had before. What he remembers of the world itself is murky, at best, but Hux stood out in the clearest detail. It would seem the general is on his mind, but why?

He drops back onto the pillows. Something about this nightmare refuses to be banished; it lingers. His pulse is still racing. Cold clammy sweat clings to his skin. His hair soaks the bedding uncomfortably. He suspects sleep will be impossible after this. Ren tosses back the covers and heads to the 'fresher in search of a hot shower to chase away the chill of the dream.

Even after scrubbing himself clean, the Force prickles his senses incessantly. He hasn't had a vision since Rey… and those were fostered by Snoke. Could this be a new ability developing, or was it just a bizarre nightmare? Since defeating Snoke, his powers _ have _ grown, and the Force can manifest in any number of odd ways. There's only one way to know. Ren turns off the `fresher, and summons a towel as the water trickles to a stop. He dresses in uncomfortable silence. Apprehension worms under his skin. What if Hux is really hurt? Why would it matter? Kylo perches on the driest corner of his bed and comms the General.

A grainy hologram takes shape as Hux paws at his blankets. He looks rumpled, perhaps with thicker bags under his eyes than usual. Adorable, a sardonic voice in the back of his mind supplies. Ren pushes that aside. Has Hux even slept? Somehow, Kylo pictured him being as vigilant with his personal life as he is with his command of the bridge; scheduled down to the last minute. The notion of Hux pulling an all-nighter off duty is laughable - or rather, it _ was _. After this… dream, nothing seems certain anymore.

"Ren-? Supreme Leader, wha’ is it?" Hux slurs out in a way he never would on the bridge. 

Kylo pulls out of his musings. Hux’s personal life isn’t his concern. He just needs answers. That’s… that’s all. "Report, General."

Hux’s staticy image pushes his hair back and sits up. By the looks of him he's undressed and in bed. Kylo imagines his uniform is lying on the floor of his chambers some place. 

Just a dream, he wonders again. But why would he be having nightmares of General Hux? Despite the rocky start to his reign, he and Hux have found a tentatively civil balance of late. 

Hux has proven useful despite being (or perhaps because of being) consumed with ambition. Sure, he’s tried to poison Ren once or twice, but that’s sort of fair turnabout for the attempt Kylo made on his life during the coup. Without one another, the Resistance may well prove impossible to squash, and the dogs vying for their respective positions could tear them apart. No, for now, they need each other. That still doesn’t explain why his subconscious would be plaguing him unless the Force has something to say.

"Things should be the same as when I signed off the bridge two…” Hux supplies, stifling a yawn. “three hours ago." "I can have a supplemental report drawn up for you if there's a concern."

Ren shakes his head, "No, that's...” Hux's eyes flit over his bare torso, and Ren becomes frustratingly self-conscious, as if he hadn't done the exact same thing moments before. “Is everything alright, Hux?"

The General waves the question off, "I'm jus' tired, Kylo… Ren.” Hux sounds definitively weary now, but he’s quick to correct himself. “Ren. I’ll be on the bridge at the start of the next cycle, the same as always."

Kylo pauses, with no real reason to carry the conversation on any longer. "Goodnight, Hux."

"Supreme Leader," Hux acknowledges. His tone’s still not as crisp as usual.

The call ends. As Kylo remakes his bed with clean sheets he replays the sound of Hux voice in his head before catching himself and shaking his head to clear it away. Hux is fine. There’s no secret meaning to his dream. That should be the end of it. 

It is not.


	2. Phasma

Ren never makes it to the First Order Summit. Less than a day after the strange encounter in Sloane’s quarters, he receives an urgent summons to the medbay. When he arrives, Head Physician Oldsbur, a middle aged woman with a shrewd gaze and wobbly cheeks, is waiting with chilling news. Hux has been found unconscious in a sanitation closet not too far from his quarters.

"We believe he contracted something akin to Brainrot Plague on Dromund Kaas two standard weeks ago.”

“Brainrot? Are we looking at a pandemic?” His heart isn’t in the words. Kylo’s more focused on the very real, very frightening notion that Hux is seriously ill. The rest of the Order is hardly worth the time of day to him.

“So far, no other cases have been reported,” she reassures him, “but we’re going to issue a medical alert to the crew and call in the crew from that mission for testing.”

“How long until he recovers?” Kylo asks in his best nonchalant voice. He doesn’t want to seem overly concerned.

Oldsbur’s forehead creases. Bad news, then. “From what we’ve observed in the locals, the virus causes insomnia, weight loss, delirium, nerve degeneration, and organ failure if left untreated. This is a brain scan from the General's standard annual physical," she explains, bringing up a hologram. It seems to Ren like an ordinary brain, unremarkable despite Hux’s strategic merit.

She continues, "This is the scan we took an hour ago." A second image materializes next to the first. This one is far more black than white, in fact, there's hardly any white left. "As you can see, the damage is substantial. The brain has been bleeding for quite some time.”

Ren leans back against Doctor Oldsbur’s desk. His gaze flits over the sparse decor of the room - her certification on the wall, a tiny violet shrub under a gro-lamp under the viewport, a cluster of neatly arranged photos printed on flimsi on the wall, each portraying a cluster of happy humanoids resembling the doctor. Most share her piercing, serious gaze, but there are a few children with hair bound in Outer Rim style buns that have astoundingly vibrant smiles. Kylo forces himself to tune back into the doctor’s words.

“At this point, we can make him comfortable, but the odds of the General waking, let alone being fit for service ever again are effectively zero."

Zero. Kylo clenches his jaw. He's without words. Hux is imperative to the function of the First Order and without him…

Something unnamed and uncomfortable squirms in Kylo’s stomach.

"We'll be contacting his next of kin, Grand Admiral Sloane, shortly," Oldsbur informs him practically. "She'll be asked to come in to witness his passing after the summit, assuming he makes it that long, and begin the process of executing his will." The summit is supposed to run for two standard cycles. That seemed like an unreasonably long time when he was going to be attending an endless string of intensive talks, but talking now that they’re talking about Hux’s life, it hardly seems like any time at all.

"I'm going to see him," he says abruptly as the scans dissolve.

The doctor pulls a startled face but nods. "Of course, Supreme Leader. If there's anything else you need, let me know." Ren is never denied anything. Fear of his wrath is useful.

Hardly listening, Ren stalks from the room, and waves the door to the patient wing open. Kylo notices only one of the beds is surrounded by curtains, the others empty and open. It must be the one occupied by Hux. 

The room smells of death already. A lead weight settles itself low in Kylo's stomach. Hux isn't even gone yet, but the Force swirls around him like a dark cloud, pulsating, as if greedily awaiting his passing. He pushes back the curtain and steps inside.

What he sees is sickly. Hux lays skeletal on the bed, features gaunt, heavy bags under his eyes. Ren can see the veins under his skin. His flaming orange hair has turned a lackluster blond. A tube runs from complex medical machinery into his mouth, secured in place by tape. Everything about this is wrong. It's only been a few days. 

The doors to the ward hiss open and familiar heavy footfalls march up to just behind where he stands observing Hux. Ren looks over his shoulder to Phasma, her trusty plasma rifle slung over her shoulder, black cape flowing behind her.

"Sir." She nods to him, looming over the foot of Hux’s bed. She grips the rail in one hand, the black eyes of her visor trained on his prone form.

"What are you doing here?"Kylo asks suspiciously.

"I heard about the General's condition." She supplies unhelpfully, ignoring the way he waits for her to elaborate. She’s always been stoic. That and her ruthless practicality have served her well in the Order.

Eventually, Kylo prompts, "You're not eligible for his position. Killing him does you no favours."

Phasma is, above all else, self-serving. He wouldn’t put it past her to get impatient waiting for Hux to die and come finish the job. Why else would she be here?

"General Hux and I were friends.” He can't make out her expression, but he gets the impression she's rolling her eyes behind that silver mask. “I helped him remove several obstacles during his career."

"He's not dead yet." Ren balks at her use of the past tense, like he’s not even here anymore.

Phasma shrugs. "My homeworld had a rather bleak view on survival. Someone in his condition would be mercied to spare others the burden of caring for him."

"You're not _ mercying _ anyone."His own relationship with death is complicated, but he's never been afraid to cut others down to achieve his goals. Han Solo, Snoke, Luke Skywalker, even Rey… and once, maybe even General Hux. The notion of mercying Hux, however, is somehow incredibly offensive.

"No. I will miss him, though.” Her tone softens marginally, pitying. “Even if he does wake up, he'll never be the man he was."

For some reason, Ren sees red. "Get the karking hell out," he barks. "Now!"

Phasma stands in the face of his rage, immobile for a moment, then turns on her heel. She pauses, glancing back over her shoulder at him. "I’m not the only one who will mourn him, am I?”

Kylo watches her retreating back, fuming. He doesn't know why her callousness has riled him up so much, but she struck a nerve. The thought of Hux dying _ does _distress him.

He knows the prognosis - the vital organs shutting down one by one until he expires in a few days. Life support will only sustain him for so long. Even if Hux is lucky enough to recover at all, he’ll likely be impaired and unable to function either as an officer or without constant medical care, if that’s even a life at all..

Hux _ will _ recover; he has to. For all their squabbles under Snoke's reign, Kylo's come to rely on Hux. So far, the General has only made a few token attempts on his life. Despite that, they've been cooperating as a team. He doesn't want to lose that.

Ren leaves and tries to go about his day as normal after his visit to the medbay, but thoughts about Armitage Hux seems to literally plague him.

He catches a whiff of tarine root tea in the mess hall, and looks up unthinking, expecting to see Hux across from him. Instead, he sees the unoccupied chair sprouting hands with rotten, elongated fingernails. The table under him hardens into blackest marble with rivers of milky white flowing under the surface like demented veins. His features in the reflection appears distorted, eyeless.

On the bridge, Kylo thinks he hears Hux’s voice. When he looks towards the sound, he hears the flutter of wings, and a great translucent moth rushes up the gangway and over his face, making him flinch back.

Leaving the throne room, he feels someone take his wrist and tug him back, but no one is there.

By the time he lays down to sleep the disjointed visions leave him off-balance, disturbed, and unable to rest. Insects, and marble, and a prickling sensation over his skin, ghostly touches… The Force has been unrelenting in its attempts to convey a message to him, but he can't make out what it all means.

Forsaking sleep, he's on his feet again, redressing before heading for the medbay. He encounters no one on the walk there, not even patrols.

The droid on duty allows him to pass without comment but once inside he feels like an intruder.

The ward is dark and the Force whispers excitedly. It pokes and prods aggressively at his thoughts as he treads carefully down the row of beds. For every bed he passes, two more seem to take its place, an endless corridor. When he finally comes to the curtain around Hux's bed, the whispers grow more pronounced.

Kylo takes the plunge and steps inside.

Hux looks even more gaunt in the darkness. Harsh shadows fall over his face. The tube down his throat rasps now and then mechanically, the tape on his cheek holding it in place.

Ren reaches out and pushes through the intangible web of the Force. He sinks his grasp into Hux's mind, looking for answers.

A spark flies up his arm at the contact, and with it, a vision. It's only a flash… of thick heavy darkness and a nest of brambles snagging his skin. A sharp yelp in the darkness. A flash of hands, too many hands, reaching through the brambles.

Kylo lets go of the Force and staggers back, disoriented. He's never encountered a mind like this - and he's spent his share of time picking at the General's thoughts. For information or just for something to do. Now he knows Hux is still in there, despite everyone today saying otherwise. Kylo isn't about to let them pull the plug on him now. He’s going to pull the general through this.

He finds a chair and pulls up beside the bed. His fingers hover over the man's temple, pressing in with the Force.

The meticulously organized network that is usually Hux's mind is gone. This time, he pushes past the odd flashes of disembodied limbs and moth wings, determined to find Hux. What he finds sucks him in.

Suddenly, he's falling...


	3. Maratelle

The landscape around him when he comes to is nebulous. He's not so much standing as - floating. Shards that appear to be transparisteel float through the air, bumping into him now and then. He reaches up and touches one. There's a beat. Then, the shard recoils and there's a quick sting. Blood beads on the tip of his finger. Kylo scowls, extending his senses through the Force.

What comes is muted, a cacophony of distorted voices. Shapeless shadows move in the inky blackness around him. They rustle excitedly as he agitates the Force around them. They repel his probes, as if they don't want to be seen. The Force, which supposedly flows through all things, seems to bounce off these shapes. Ren brushes past fields of shards and shadows, searching for anything remotely resembling Hux.

The deeper he goes, the louder the shadows become. A great, booming voice rolls out of the clouds. The weight of it knocks Kylo off his axis. He careens away as the words loop back, slightly more audible this time.

_ "-useless, good for nothing, insubordinate little brat! You should be more grateful!" _

Guilt presses in on his every side. Failure… Revulsion. It's overwhelming.

From behind Ren, one of the shadows takes shape, rushing through him and away, carrying the shouting voice with it. It seems to make a bearded face. The place where its eyes should be are gaping black wounds over an open maw of a mouth.

Silence falls again.

Kylo catches his breath. This is nothing like he expected. Hux was always so meticulously put together. His mind was like a data file. Everything was in its place, always. 

Now, there's nothing familiar; only these specters. He’s seen the effects of Brainrot Plague before, but never anything like this. What sickness could have altered Hux's mindscape this drastically?

He pushes off, gliding deeper. The specters thicken, developing into scenes of people that overlap. Ren catches snatches of conversation, First Order and Imperial emblems bleeding together, the taste of copper in his mouth as an enlarged fist whooshes down from above and crashes into a field of transparisteel below.

_ "Never get in without Daddy dearest buying your way in-" _

_ "-Thin as a slip of paper, and just as useless-" _

_ “It was a beetle… Its bite causes the victim to liquefy.” _

_ "Armie, you’re supposed to be in bed! Go back to your roo-" _

_ "Stupid boy. You never learn!" _

"Supreme Leader-"

Ren flinches, and the connection to Hux’s thoughts severs. A hand on his shoulder pulls him away from where he’s hunched over Hux.

He's back in the medbay, sitting beside Hux's bed. A single lamp has been illuminated at the end of the corridor. He whips out of his chair, saber igniting in a blaze of red light. As he wheels towards the hand on his shoulder, the glow of his saber illuminates the form of a cowering lab technician in a long white coat, the Order insignia standing proudly on his chest. He narrowly misses carving the man’s arm off as they stagger apart. The chair he was perched on is not so lucky; its severed plasteel falling to the ground with a clatter, followed by the rest of the chair.

The general remains eerily motionless behind Ren.

The technician, on the other hand, flattens his oily brown hair nervously to the top of his head, grovelling for forgiveness, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to… Visiting hours are over, Lord Ren. You'll - you'll have to come back tomorrow."

Kylo casts a look back at Hux’s wane frame. "Is he going to last that long?" The question is bitter on his tongue.

"Truthfully, we don't know. He should, but the virus has proven resistant to treatment. It's… "

Ren scowls at the greasy technician, brandishing his still-lit saber. "No, finish what you were saying."

"You might stab me." 

“Why, do you me to?” Kylo shoots back with a lethal glare. He hefts his saber in one hand threateningly. “That can easily be arranged. What did you say your name was?”

Seeming to take the hint, the technician scrambles to get back on topic. "Well… from our tests, there's nothing extraordinary about this strain of virus. The treatment should be working. Between that and the critical condition he was found in, it's as if…” he continues in a shaky, conspiratorial whisper, “the General doesn't _ want _to get better."

Kylo extinguishes his saber and sits heavily in his chair. He notices belatedly that there's dried blood on his fingertip. “Doesn't want to?”

"His organs have begun to shut down. He has days left, at best…” The technician wrings his hands and looks anywhere but Ren. “ We're only prolonging the inevitable."

"You're going to keep him alive as long as I say. Is that understood?"

"...Yes, Supreme Leader. I’ll inform Dr. Oldsbur," comes the hesitant reply. The skittish technician lingers, oblivious.

"Good. Now, _ leave _us,” Kylo prompts.“Oh! Right!” The technician pulls out a comm unit and backs away from Hux’s bedside. He collides with the empty bed behind him and turns on his heel to scurry out of the ward. Kylo can hear him speaking into the comm as he retreats. Ren rolls his eyes. As aggravating as that exchange was, underlings are a necessity.

Ren slouches on the foot of Hux’s bed and rubs his hand over his jaw in frustration. Hux should have recovered by now. More bluntly, Kylo should have been able to revive him by now. He feels frustratingly helpless. It’s complete bullshit. It doesn’t help that Ren doesn’t trust the medbay staff to do their job. They must be missing something if the best they can come up with is that it’s Hux’s stubbornness keeping him from recovering. It’s completely unlike Hux to surrender. If anything, the general is too stubborn to die, not the other way around - or has Kylo really missed that much? Actually, come to think of it, it might not be that unrealistic, given that neither he nor anyone else noticed the sudden decline in his health until he was already in peril. Ren clenches his jaw. He doesn’t like failing.

The notion of failure makes him lash out. He shoots up from his perch and shoves the rolling tray beside Hux’s bed with all his might. It flies through the curtain and crashes over the bed on the other side. He reaches for his saber, feeling a furious cry building and building in his chest. He barely has the presence of mind to move until Hux is out of the blast radius before his lightsaber ignites and he plunges it into the nearest bulkhead with a bestial roar. The acrid smell of molten metal fills the air as he hacks through bulkhead, medical equipment, beds, curtains - anything within reach, screaming until his throat is raw.

When his anger is finally expended, he’s heaving for breath, surrounded by destruction. Kylo turns back to the one bed that escaped the carnage, with Hux motionless atop it. His breathing apparatus has been nicked, the corner smoldering, but it’s still operational. Kylo drops to the ground and catches his breath. He bows his head, overcome with shame and anger. He needs to pull Hux out of his coma. There’s no alternative. He has to…

Ren bars the door with his personal access code and draws the curtains around Hux's bed. Framing both sides of his face in his palms, Kylo perches beside him on the bed. Their foreheads almost touch and his breath fogs Hux's breathing apparatus. Ren isn’t taking any chances of being interrupted again.

"I'm coming in to get you, you stubborn bastard,” he says thickly, his voice hoarse from his earlier outburst, "even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming." Hux doesn’t respond. 

Kylo closes his eyes and reaches for that spark of connection he felt before. The world rushes out from under him, and darkness overtakes his senses.

It's easier to orient himself this time, even under the crushing weight of confusion and pain that well up around him. The voices start up again almost instantly, babbling over each other incoherently. Kylo glides in great loops over the expanse of shadowmen and glass, taking care not to nick himself further. Deeper and deeper he goes, until the shadows take on form and the beginnings of colour.

_ “Just as useless,” _a contemptuous Commandant Hux spat.

_ “- I told her it had to be untraceable, and it shall remain so.” _

_ “A cur's weakness, properly manipulated, can be a sharp tool," _Snoke’s disembodied voice sneers.

_ “- a bastard boy, as I understand.” _

_ “You can talk to me if he’s hitting you, Armie-” _

_ “It will be your life's work to take children like these savages and hammer their malleable minds into whatever shape-” _

_ “-Perhaps Snoke should consider using a clone army.” _

_ “-Phasma, this is my son, Armitage.” _

_ “You will leave him alone. And you will teach the boy everything that you know. Are we clear?” _

_ “I need your help, Phas. It needs to be untraceable-” _

Lightning ripples across the landscape around them, illuminating the scenes around him. Schoolboys brawling. A small, scrawny figure cowering under a dining table. An angry, bellowing man that's blown away by the face of a woman. The white streak in her hair is made of lightning. Sloane, looking even more impressive than he’s ever seen her. As Kylo tries to study her further, her white uniform collar slowly taking shape, she's cut down… by a red beam. He follows the light as she disintegrates, and sees the Hosnian system, mid-destruction. Connected to it by the blazing phantom energy beams, is Starkiller… The planet is already cracked, much like the five micronovas that remain of the Hosnian system.

Ren floats between the beams, not wanting to know what might happen if he grazes one. Past the planets, the figures lose tangibility once more, as if he’s found some eye in the storm that is Hux's inner landscape. Here, the voices quiet to a murmur once more. At the center of the eye, he finds… well, he doesn't know what to call it.

It looks like a thicket. Brambles and thorny vines woven tightly together make a chaotic sphere. Ren floats up and over, and finds that the sphere has a rim at the top… almost like some demented nest. There, curled up in the center, is a naked, skinny, shivering Hux. His once-fiery hair is that same ashy blond as in his hospital bed.

"Hux," he calls down.

The man burrows his head under his arms, wailing in an inhuman voice. This… this isn't the Hux he knows. Ren flies over the edge of the nest and down to be level with him. "General…"

"Go away. You're not real. You're not-"

Ren scowls. "Armitage. I'm real."

That gets his attention and Hux looks up. His eyes, where they should be, are sunken black smudges, as if someone had painted over the hollow sockets. Kylo recoils.

"You've never said that before," comes a small voice from the thing that wears Hux’s face.

"That I'm real...?" Kylo asks. He tries not to stare at the black depths where Hux’s eyes ought to be.

"No - they all say that," Hux answers monotonously. "My name… you've never used my name before."

Kylo shrugs out of his cloak - was he always wearing a cloak here? - and drapes it around Hux's shoulders. "Come on. It's time to wake up. I've come to get you."

Rather than respond, Hux holds up his cupped hands. His fingers open, revealing a single, tiny frog. Vivid orange stripes paint down its back. Its vocal sack fills, and an odd, musical sound tinkers out instead of a croak. Brambles poke at Kylo’s shins as he kneels. How Hux isn’t covered in scratches from his nest… This place seems to operate on the same plane as lucid dreaming. Perhaps it doesn’t hurt Hux because he doesn’t want it to. Or maybe he just isn’t aware enough for pain to occur to him.

Kylo examines the frog, still singing its little music box tune. “Are you sure that thing isn’t poisonous?” he asks.

Hux closes his fingers around the frog again and draws it close to his chest. His knees huddle up to conceal his hands, protecting the little creature. Ren’s cloak engulfs his scrawny limbs whole. The black smudges over his eyes leak inky rivulets down Hux’s cheeks. His fingertips have dark stains on them now, too.

“Armitage, you need to wake up for me,” he insists again, frustrated by everything about this nightmare world.

Hux only cringes, his naked form curling in on itself further. “It’s not safe.”

“What do you mean?” 

Is Hux talking about the shadows outside of the bramble shelter? Or something in the waking world? An answer comes from above - the general’s distorted, barely distinguishable voice howling in the dark, _ “You presume to command my army?” _

Without warning, a massive, shadowy hand swoops up around them and clenches the nest in its fist. Hux throws his hands over his head with an inhuman wail. The frog hops over his knees, past his blackened toes, and burrows itself between branches and thorny vines.

_ “The Supreme Leader is dead,” _ a second voice booms. It gives even Kylo chills, rattling him down to the bone.

“No,” the Hux in the nest whimpers. “Please, I’ll do anything…”

Seeing Hux plead for anything is sickening. He’s only seen it once before… He just doesn’t want to believe his own ears.

_ “The Supreme Leader,” _ the voice roars again, louder, _ “is _ ** _dead._ ** _ ” _

The fist crunches tighter. The nest walls crack and begin to fall around them. Kylo reaches for his lightsaber and ignites it, only for the blade to pass through the shadow beast and sink into the nest.

Hux wails.

“Stay with me, Hux,” Kylo shouts over the voice, extinguishing his saber. He braces his arms against the sides of the nest, keeping it from caving in completely. Brambles cut through his tunic sleeves. They wrap around him, lashing out against the fist fearfully. Hux makes a horrid gagging sound. Ren feels the general's suffocation as if it's his own. The walls of his throat constrict painfully as the nest shudders, threatening to cave in entirely.

A bony, timid hand reaches up and clutches the hem of his tunic. From where Hux is hidden in his knees, a tiny, hoarse voice pipes up as a great wind rushes over them. “Long live the Supreme Leader…”

_ “Long live the Supreme Leader,” _ the disembodied echos come, Kylo and Hux’s voices mingling.

And just like that… the fist releases them. The nest relaxes its stranglehold on Ren, dropping him to the floor. Beside them, the frog emerges cautiously and croaks its melody once more.

Hux is shaking like a leaf. His throat is ringed in an unsightly purple. Is that the colour Hux's neck turned after Kylo strangled him that day, when he ascended to power? Ren remembers the bulging veins and red cheeks, the bugged eyes… but his collar was always meticulously buttoned. His gut does an uncomfortable twist in his gut that he's quick to push away.

Kylo scrubs a hand over his face. He doesn’t want to believe it. But then again - hasn’t he spent years trying to frighten Hux into submission? Guiltily, he thinks of his episode in the medbay, tearing apart anything not immediately key to Hux’s survival. Could Hux hear all of that? If he wants the General to recover, they’re going to have to confront their history. He’s not looking forward to that. In the shadows, the whispering phantoms have receded for now. Kylo suspects they’ll attack again sooner rather than later. Judging by the damage dealt to the nest around them, Hux’s remaining psyche won’t survive many more of these bombardments.

“I deserved it,” Hux snivels.

Ren twists sharply to face him. Hux continues, arms still covering his head, “I made him angry. I should have just listened…”

“Armitage,” he says softly, trying not to spook him. Hux’s fingers have blackened down to the knucklebone, thinning more than Kylo could have thought possible. “The Supreme Leader isn’t going to hurt you anymore.”

Hux shuffles back to the wall of the nest, shivers wracking his body. “You’re lying,” he accuses venomously. Kylo can’t help the tiniest smile. His general still has some bite after all.

“No. You have my word. I’ll keep you safe…” He crawls closer, uncaring of the numerous scratches and cuts littering his skin after the attack of his own shadow.

Hux slowly looks up from his huddle. Black eyes grow from the smudge over his eye sockets, and open, blinking fathomless irises back at him. For the first time, he seems to recognize Ren.

“... K-Kylo?”

Ren holds his hand out towards him, seeing a glimmer of recognition in his eyes. He can feel the hope when it wells up in Hux’s thoughts, lightening the oppressive landscape outside of the nest the littlest bit. “That’s it, Armitage… Just a bit closer. I’ll take care of you."

The tiny spark of hope he sees in Hux’s gaze abruptly vanishes. “No!” Hux bellows, thrusting his hand out.

The nest ejects him in a torrent of wind. Ren tumbles through space, trying to right himself. He pushes off a thick shard the size of a TIE fighter and hurtles back towards the nest.

Something emerges from the dark, roaring with a multitude of voices.

_ “-just as useless; slip of paper, paper, paper, useless-” _

_ “Ventral cannons hot, sir, sir-” _

_ “FN-2187-” _

**_“General!_** **_Prepare the weapon-”_**

_ “-my army, tied on the end of string, a string, tie-” _

_ “I want that map. For your sake-” _

_ “Perhaps Supreme Leader Snoke should use a clone army.” _

_ “The weapon is ready.” _

_ “-suggest you get it.” _

_ “-loathsome Republic!” _

Then, amid all the memories of fragmented conversation, new phrases begin stringing themselves together, "_ The Supreme Leader is dead, _ General _ . For you sake, I suggest you _ listen _ . Useless as a slip of paper. Sickly _ child _ . Perhaps _ you _ should _ be ** _replaced_ ** _ \- _”

Hands… Hands everywhere, human and frog alike. The creature seems composed of nothing but elbows and wrists and palms. Hooked fingers, charred black and skeletal, grapple Hux from his hiding place, wrapping around his limbs, his throat. Hux struggles against the creature, but before Kylo can reach his side to help, the monster shoves off of the bramble nest and is swallowed up by the darkness, taking Hux with it.

Ren’s consciousness slams back into his own body.


	4. Leia

“I heard I’d find you here,” Sloane’s voice reaches him from a great distance. He opens his eyes. He’s sitting on the bed across from Hux, legs folded beneath him. Hux looks worse for wear, his skin slowly yellowing as his liver fails. The Force has gathered more tightly around Hux during his meditations, cinching like a noose of black energy.

Sloane stands over the bed, nudging the chair he ruined earlier with the toe of her polished boot, an unimpressed eyebrow arched at him. She looks every bit as regal here as she did in Hux’s head. She must have left the summit early. The sight of her still inspires dread. Has she come to pull the plug on Hux, so soon? Ren exhales heavily through his nose, pushing through the sudden onset of nerves. He’s stronger than that. “I’ve been searching for answers.”

“And?” she presses when he doesn’t elaborate. “What have you found?”

“More questions. He’s still in there, but it’s faint. There’s almost nothing left of him. I’m running out of time to pull him out, and while the Force guided me this far, it’s being maddeningly silent on how to help him.” Kylo feels - vulnerable, talking about his efforts to save a man he’s so publicly hated. He doesn’t like how it feels.

Sloane crosses her arms over her chest, looking over Hux. “General Hux is a fighter. He’ll pull through. He’s survived worse.”

“That’s just the problem,” Ren counters, angry. “He isn’t fighting. He dreams of you, you know. You chase away the nightmares.”

“Like his father,” she prompts expectantly.

“Like me,” he corrects bitterly. That massive hand, the absolute terror that filled Hux’s thoughts at the sound of Ren’s monstrous, warped voice - Ren is Hux’s greatest fear.

Grand Marshal Sloane arches an eyebrow at him, “And that surprises you?”

Ren feels childish, wallowing in self-pity. He changes the subject, “You’re his next of kin. Why?”

“You’re aware of what happened to his father?” Sloane leans her back against the bulkhead, her gaze boring relentlessly into Ren. For a moment, she bears an uncanny resemblance to the General Hux Kylo remembers from before Starkiller’s completion.

“I’ve heard the rumours.” Kylo confirms. A memory prickles the back of his thoughts, Hux’s voice staccato and cold. _ I need your help, Phas. _ “He died rather painfully.”

Sloane nods stoically, but then her gaze turns on Hux and it softens marginally. Her hand moves towards him, but stops short of carding through his yellowing hair. “When I received my orders to rescue Brendol Hux and his son, my instructions were to not bother with his wife and mistress. Armitage spent his formative years being a guinea pig for his father’s various training program, always held to a higher standard than the rest. Nothing he ever did was good enough for Brendol. Some say that losing Maratelle stripped him of whatever compassion the man had left in his heart. Others say it was his mistress, but I don’t think he had it in him to love the boy, no matter who his mother was. I suppose you could say that I’m the closest thing the boy had to a mother for a time.” She shakes her head, brow furrowed. “I _ told _ him to go to medical. Stubborn child.”

Kylo uncrosses his legs as he listens, scooting to the end of the bed. “Grand Marshal - do you know of any reason why frogs would mean something to Hux?”

Sloane shakes her head at first - then cocks her head to the side. “No - well. It might be nothing, but once during one of my visits, Brendol caught him reading a novelty book on dream interpretation he’d saved from his mother. Brendol had the book incinerated for ‘filling his head with nonsense.’ There was a frog on the cover. It always stuck out in my memory.”

Dream interpretation…?

“Thank you, Grand Marshal. You’ve been very helpful.”

Sloane observes him critically for a few moments, then nods. “Bring him back. It’d be a shame to have to replace him.”

Ren suspects she cares more than she lets on, but for now, they both seem to need the illusion that they aren’t all that affected by Hux’s declining health.

Using the small terminal at the end of the ward, Ren digs into whatever he can find on dream interpretation - which is precious little. Even using his personal access codes, which removes many of the First Order’s intensive propaganda filters, he only finds a few keywords here and there. It all seems to be arbitrary nonsense to him. If he couldn’t feel the agitated hum of the Force around him, he would give up this entire search. At least the horrific visions have stopped, for now.

A nurse and med droid are bustling about the bed behind Hux’s curtains. As hard as it is to allow them to work on Hux without his constant supervision, he remains rooted to his terminal. He doesn’t want to know what Hux’s deteriorating vitals look like now. At least his orders forbidding taking the general off of life support have been heeded. Ren pours over the scratched notes beside the terminal.

_ Brambles - caution and difficult family relationships _

_ Moths - unavoidable sickness, death, metamorphosis _

_ Black marble - uncertain future _

_ Frogs - spiritual transformation? _

None of this is exactly groundbreaking. Frustrated, he turns his attention to Arkanis, searching for local wildlife. To his shock, one of the first images to materialize in front of him is a frog… Not just any frog, but the same frog from Hux’s mind. According to the source material, however, it is known to come in browns and greens, not the vibrant colours it manifested in.

Feeling no closer to answers than when he started, Ren returns to Hux’s bedside. Hux is running out of time. He circles the bed and props another stolen chair between the bed and the wall. He frames Hux’s temples in his hands as he sits down, gloves tucked into his heavy belt. Hux’s skin is cool and clammy to the touch. Kylo closes his eyes and takes the icy plunge. Hux’s walls are stronger than before. He has to force his way through. He pries the general’s mind open with only a twinge of guilt. It’s this or death, and he’s not letting Hux go.

The nest is harder to find this time. The darkness is thicker - not a vast abyss of space, but a living cloud of toxic miasma. The air is so thick with self-loathing and fear that Ren struggles to breathe. Specters coalesce far quicker, eyeless faces turned towards him. This time, he recognizes Commandant Brendol Hux, towering high above him, and what must be boys from the Academy, judging by the uniforms he saw on the holonet during his research into Arkanis. He pushes through them, past the gaunt face of a woman with long hair. He’s not sure if she’s supposed to be Maratelle or Hux’s mother. The details are too faded from years of memory.

Sloane’s lightning-infused face is nowhere to be found. Ren pushes himself through the transparisteel minefield, dodging ghosts. Past them, he finds Starkiller once more. The planet is collapsing rapidly, with thick red beams shooting off in every direction, obliterating anything in their path.

_ Failure! Useless! Mistake! _

_ “Not my fault,” _a tear-stricken voice bubbles up from the planet’s core. Kylo can’t tell whether Hux is referring to the destruction Starkiller wrought, or the loss of the base itself. Tears build in his eyes under the intensity of emotion rippling through the air. He wipes them away angrily.

At last, the thicket of bramble and vine comes into view. It has sprouted dozens and dozens of hands, all reaching out from the depths of the nest. Their fingers and palms are an ashy black. Kylo urges himself to go faster, searching for the entrance. As he closes in, the hands turn, as if watching him. The ripple of motion is chilling.

He reaches the nest and hands shoot out to grab him. Kylo twists out of their icy grip, grabbing some by the wrists to twist the nest around. Countless fingers run over his body. He ignores the chilling sensations as best he can.

Ah-ha! There’s the entrance. It’s thick with protruding limbs, but through the tunnel, he can make out faded red hair.

Steeling himself, Ren crawls on his hands and knees into the tunnel of hands. They snag on his clothing and hair, occasionally grabbing at his limbs. He drops into the nest, spiky thorns poking into his palms. Behind him, the tunnel closes, hands interlocking to block out the red glow of Starkiller. The only light now comes from the music box frog, its orange stripes pulsating faintly.

Hux is curled in the same defensive ball as before. In the shadows, Ren sees the charcoal colour spreading up Hux's arms and legs rapidly, threatening to encase him entirely. His cloak is pooled around Hux’s waist. Ren reaches out towards him.

“Armie,” he says, brushing over his shoulder.

Hux lifts his head partway.

“Armie, my name is Ben.” He cringes at himself for using that name again. Hopefully, it will buy him the time he needs. Young Armitage reminds him so much of Ben Solo - weak, foolish, uncertain, lonely. Like Ren, Hux outgrew his insecurities and took the recognition denied him in his youth by force. Now, the entire galaxy knows and fears them both. Kylo has to be quick to remind Hux of who he becomes and help him shed all of this despair. The waves of Hux’s fear and grief clogging the air are stifling. “Do you know who I am?”

Hux shakes his head.

“I’m - a Jedi padawan. My Uncle sent me to Arkanis on an exchange program at the Academy. Can I come stay with you?”

The hands around them ripple, clearly listening. Kylo hopes he’s doing the right thing here.

“It’s not safe,” Hux whispers meekly. “My father - he gets so angry. He doesn’t like Jedi.”

“It’s a good thing I haven’t finished my training, then,” Kylo fibs. “I’m not a real Jedi yet.”

He thinks he sees a tiny glimpse of a smile. The frog glows just a fraction brighter, then dims. “Why Arkanis? Shouldn’t you be going to a New Republic school?”

“Rae Sloane is a family friend. She told my Uncle that she knew a brilliant cadet I could learn a lot from.”

That, at least, gets a reaction from Hux. He looks up, empty eye sockets fixed on Ren. His legs uncurl a fraction. “Rae…? Is she with you?”

“She’s nearby. Do you want to come see her? She says an awful lot of good things about you.”

And just like that, Hux begins to withdraw again. Shit. Ren forges ahead. “She said you’re going to do great things for the Empire someday. That you’re the brightest engineer in your year. That your father underestimates how capable you are…”

“N-no…” Hux whimpers, hands clawing through his own hair. Patches fall out.

“Are you saying Rae lied to me?” Kylo challenges.

The hands pause their frenzied motion, retracting a few inches. Hux doesn’t answer.

Ren pushes ahead, “It’s not your fault, you know.”

Hux hesitates - then takes the bait, cocking his head to the side. “...What isn’t?”

“Your mother getting left behind when you fled the Republic, your father cheating on Maratelle, Brendol’s impossible standards. It’s not up to a child to be the grownup in a family.” He can’t help thinking of Han and Leia - their love, their misguided attempts to sway him towards the Light, their fear of him and his power. Ren buries those thoughts. Now isn’t the time, and yet - he finds himself saying things that young Ben Solo needed to hear, things neither Luke nor Snoke could ever give him. “You deserved to be happy, Armie. You deserved to be safe, and he took that from you. But he’s gone now, and he can’t hurt you anymore - and neither can Kylo Ren.”

He crawls closer and holds his hand out for Hux. “It’s safe to come out now, Armie.”

Armitage hesitates. Then, ever so slowly, he reaches out and slips his fingers into Kylo's palm. Kylo closes his hand around them. The orange glow of the singing frog fades, and for a moment, everything goes black. There's a rustle behind them, then a croak, and the frog, now a muted mossy green, hops past them and up the tunnel of receding hands. When Kylo turns to face Hux again, the colour has returned to his body, everywhere except the smudge across his eyes.

Kylo guides Hux to his feet. Hux's military boots materialize around his shins, protecting him from the brambles as they walk up the tunnel and out the other side.

Instead of the nebulous space of chaos and destruction from before, Ren finds himself emerging onto the deck of the Finalizer. Out the viewport, he can see the Arkanis system. Rae Sloane stands silhouetted at the bow of the ship beside a redheaded woman. Hux breathes a sigh that sounds to Ren like relief.

"Kylo?"

Ren turns, and - oh… Hux is entirely himself again, crisp uniform, slicked hair, but his eyes… have they always been so vivid? Kylo forgets momentarily how to breathe. Green like the sea, with piercing streaks of Star Destroyer grey meet his gaze.

"I'm here, Hux," he answers. Their hands are still joined.

"You came for me… Why?"

_ Tell him _, a voice in the back of his mind urges, sounding suspiciously like his mother. But words escape him. How can he explain all of what's happened? Instead of words, he leans in impulsively.

Before he can kiss Hux, the General takes a half-step away, and Ren is hurtled backwards. He passes through the viewport, hurtling towards Arkanis, and loses consciousness.


	5. Oldsbur

He wakes up not in his chair, but in a bed. The lights are dimmed, the sounds of medical equipment humming around him. Ren sits up quickly, only for vertigo to make the world tilt around him. When his vision clears and things return to equilibrium, Doctor Oldsbur is at his side.

“How long have I been out?” he asks sharply.

“About four standard hours,” she answers, holding a tiny torch up in front of his eyes and waving it back and forth. “Follow the light.”

“Hux,” he interrupts, waving off the offending instrument. The sudden motion tugs at a tube taped to the back of his hand. Ren glares at it, and follows the tube up to the bag of fluids strung up beside him. There’s no time to waste. “I need to get back in there.”

“You’ll stay right where you are,” Oldsbur chastises firmly. “The General is stabilizing, and needs to recuperate. So do you.”

Kylo looks up at her, astounded. Her outline shimmers faintly from his vision swimming. He scrubs a hand over his eyes. “_ What _?”

With a dismissive eye roll, Oldsbur pulls back the curtain between him and the bed on the left, and there lies Hux. The breathing tube is still fixed in place, but the difference is - miraculous. His hair and skin are regaining colour. He looks a little less skeletal. He’s - he’s every bit as breathtaking as those last few moments on the Finalizer’s bridge. Ren shoves those observations aside. What matters most is that the Force, while still murmuring excitedly around the general, no longer is dark with intent. Hux isn’t on the edge of dying anymore.

“How…?” he murmurs as he sits up again more cautiously. His stomach heaves, but nothing comes up.

The doctor spreads her hands and purses her lips. “Honestly, Supreme Leader, we haven’t got a clue. There’s no apparent reason, just as there was no reason for why he wasn’t responding to treatment before. Whatever magic you worked must have helped him. He’s finally taking to his medication, and should be safe to wake up in the next standard day.”

Ren sinks back onto the bed, relieved and exhausted by this entire experience. “Good… good. Wake me if anything changes.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader,” Oldsbur concedes. “They’ll send dinner up for you in about an hour. Try to get some rest. We’ll comm Grand Admiral Sloane and let her know she can return to visit after you’ve both recovered a little more.”

Ren nods, already nodding off. His eyelids refuse to stay open. He rolls onto his side towards Hux and smiles faintly to himself. The general is going to be alright.

This time, there are no horrific visions when he closes his eyes. No distorted voices or body parts floating in the dark. There's only quiet. He comes to to the sound of conversation nearby. The lights have been raised, and a blanket tossed over his legs. Ren sits up, pushing the hair back from his eyes.

A fresh curtain has been erected between their beds. There's evidence of repairs in progress around the ward he brutalized earlier. Standing not far from where he sits are Sloane, and Phasma, who he almost doesn't recognize with her helmet under her arm. Despite their perfect posture, they both have bags under their eyes. A shrewd blue gaze narrow at him. 

"You're awake," Phasma says evenly. Kylo has to wonder if she's angry with him for something. Behind the curtain, the conversation stops. He shuffles to the edge of the bed. His muscles ache as if he's been training all week.

"What about Hux?" Ren inquires, reaching for the curtain.

An acerbic reply shoots back, "Just fine, no thanks to your meddling."

Kylo has never been more relieved - or more annoyed. He hears Sloane sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. "Children," she scolds warningly.

The curtain pulls back, revealing Oldsbur, and a nurse he hasn't seen before taking Hux's blood pressure. As for Hux - he looks more himself than before, cheeks filling out and tinged pink. The moment their eyes meet, he feels the Force prickle with excitement, only to be cut off by a sharp, cold wall. Hux has his defences up. It rankles Ren. After all they've been through in the past few days, Hux is just going to lock him out? Apparently, that's how it's going to be.

Oldsbur bustles over to Ren, nurse in tow, and the pair neatly cut off Kylo's line of sight to the general as they take readings and perform tests one after another. He tries to wave them off, unsuccessfully. He's still a bit uncoordinated.

"You'll be pleased to know that General Hux should be fit for active duty after a couple of days of bed rest with plenty of fluids. You should be up and about in the next hour or so, but we'll want to make sure you can do certain things for yourself before discharging you," she says clinically. Ren makes the mistake of peering into her thoughts to see just what she means. It's not pleasant. Apparently, he had a few tubes of his own. It's unpleasant to dwell on, so he ignores it.

Oldsbur is already moving on, "Alright, everybody who isn't a patient, out. Visiting hours will be available tomorrow." She ushers Phasma, Sloane, and the nurse out the door with efficiency. A few repair technicians in orange overalls he hadn't noticed before pop up from behind beds and follow her out.

The silence that falls is scathing. Ren chances a glance at Hux. The redhead scowls and rolls over with his back to Kylo. That can't be comfortable with the machines he's still taped to.

"What," Kylo blurts before thinking better of it, "I don't get a thank you?"

Hux scoffs indignantly. "Right. You do one good deed, and expect me to just fall all over myself to fawn over you. This may shock you, Supreme Leader, but just because you saw a few bad dreams in my head doesn't mean we're suddenly chummy!"

Ren reels as if he's been slapped. "What exactly do you want, Hux?"

"A promotion would be a start," Hux snaps.

Kylo rolls his eyes, "Done."

"And a proper fucking apology," Hux adds, his tone still frosty.

"For  **what** ?!" Kylo demands, incensed. He'd been under the impression that he'd saved Hux's life. The answer doesn't impress the general.

"You know what?" Hux bites, twisting to glare are him, "Forget I said that. I want a transfer to The Absolution."

The demand stop Kylo dear in his indignant tracks. Hux - wants to leave the Supremacy? "What…?"

"You heard me,  _ Supreme Leader. _ I want off this ship, with a command of my own, out from under  _ your  _ shadow." Each word nails deeper into some sector of his heart he didn't know existed. After all they just went through together… No. It doesn't matter. He was fine before Armitage Hux; he'll be fine after.

"Consider it done," he growls, flicking the curtain shut between them.

"Fine," comes the sharp acknowledgement.

"Fine!"

But Ren is anything but fine...

A tiny voice in the back of his head sounding suspiciously like Snoke whispers, "_The Supreme Leader is dead._"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So an angsty ending, but have no fear! A sequel is in the works!
> 
> Major thanks go to my artist, wildfang-art, and my beta, missionfailure!!


End file.
